INACCESSIBLE

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does inaccessible mean? 

• INACCESSIBLE (adjective)
  The adjective INACCESSIBLE has 2 senses:

1. capable of being reached only with great difficulty or not at all

2. not capable of being obtained

  Familiarity information: INACCESSIBLE used as an adjective is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• INACCESSIBLE (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Capable of being reached only with great difficulty or not at all

Synonyms:

inaccessible; unaccessible

Similar:

outback; remote (inaccessible and sparsely populated)

pathless; roadless; trackless; untracked; untrod; untrodden (lacking pathways)

out of reach; unapproachable; unreachable; unreached (inaccessibly located or situated)

un-come-at-able; un-get-at-able; ungetatable (difficult to reach or attain)

Attribute:

accessibility; availability; availableness; handiness (the quality of being at hand when needed)

Antonym:

accessible (capable of being reached)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Not capable of being obtained

Synonyms:

inaccessible; unobtainable; unprocurable; untouchable

Context example:

untouchable resources buried deep within the earth

Similar:

unavailable (not available or accessible or at hand)

Derivation:

inaccessibility (the quality of not being available when needed)

 Context examples 

This discovery came as a surprise because this region of trimeric HA was thought to be stable and inaccessible to antibodies.

(Human antibody reveals hidden vulnerability in influenza virus, National Institutes of Health)

Information regarding the subject is unknown or inaccessible at this time.

(No Information Available, NCI Thesaurus)

We saw many ruined castles standing on the edges of precipices, surrounded by black woods, high and inaccessible.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

Mary was not so repulsive and unsisterly as Elizabeth, nor so inaccessible to all influence of hers; neither was there anything among the other component parts of the cottage inimical to comfort.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

To rest his head in a girl's lap had been the easiest thing in the world until now, and now he found Ruth's lap inaccessible and impossible.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

From that direction the place is really inaccessible, and, were it not for a hardish ledge which runs at the very base of the precipice, we should have had to turn back.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

In contrast, the researchers found that many of the DNA regions controlling cytokine genes in the mice’s T cells are inaccessible and silenced prior to exposure to a pathogen.

(Rapid-response immune cells are fully prepared before invasion strikes, NIH)

By the time the mice reach adulthood, however, regions of the genetic code that are targeted by Ascl1 and that are required for regeneration become inaccessible.

(Researchers unlock regenerative potential of cells in the mouse retina, National Institutes of Health)

This water is too inaccessible to be used for human purposes, but for comparison, the amount is 45 times as much water as Los Angeles currently uses in a year.

(Sierras Lost Water Weight, Grew Taller During Drought, NASA)

I looked at the bleak, inaccessible wall at my back and know the profundity of despair.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)